


Something A Little Different

by TheDoctorIsIcecube



Series: Distance of the Heart [2]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-16
Updated: 2016-08-25
Packaged: 2018-08-09 03:46:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7785520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDoctorIsIcecube/pseuds/TheDoctorIsIcecube
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Xander moves away from home, endlessly nervous about living with a stranger, but finds that they get on much better than he expected. Laslow is a mysterious person despite being shallow (and very camp) at first glance, but Xander finds himself being drawn in by his charm.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Arrival

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is a companion to Mutual Prickly Introverts, but I think it can be read separately :)

"Xander, don't worry!" Elise hugged her big brother again. "We'll miss you and I want to talk to you every day." Xander just smiled, trying not to get emotional as he watched the remainder of his family, gathered to see him off at the entrance. Elise was wrapped around his waist and he'd miss her so much. Camilla was standing off to the side, smiling. She was proud of him, but she was probably worried about looking after Elise and Leo. And there was Leo, who looked bored. He was just pretending not to care, Xander knew, but in ways it still hurt.

Once he'd managed to detach Elise from his waist and say a last goodbye to everyone, it was time to leave. He had to catch two trains and a bus to get to his new university, and with each new means of transportation, his anxiety over everything only increased. Who would he be sharing his room with? Was his course really right for him? What if he hated his room mate? What if his father was even more awful to his siblings now he was gone? What if Elise got hurt? Could Camilla look after them both? He just didn't know and he was scared for all of them and for himself. His future was so uncertain and he was worried. He was so worried. He was so worried he nearly missed one of his stops, even.

Luckily, he managed to get off the bus at the right place, and find his way to the building where he would be living. It didn't look terribly impressive, and after three flights of stairs whilst carrying all of his luggage, Xander was more irritated at the building than anything else. It was better than living under the eyes, and fists, of his father constantly, though, so he could deal with it even though there were too many steps and probably not enough toilets.

He'd had his keys sent to him beforehand so he didn't have to pick them up on the day, and found a completely untouched set of three rooms. Two bedrooms that were absolutely tiny, with barely more space than the three items of furniture each, and then a small sofa and a small but hopefully clean and functional kitchen with a couple of cupboards. Small, but it would do. He'd be able to live here he hoped, at least as long as his room mate wasn't absolutely terrible.

Xander had just finished unpacking his stuff when he heard the door open again. Presumably, that meant his roommate was here. This was further confirmed when someone called out 'helloooo, is anyone home?' and footsteps were heard in the living room.

"Hello!" He called, stopping his unpacking for now to go and meet the person he would probably be living with for the rest of this year. He just hoped that he was okay and he wasn't a party person or something. He wouldn't be able to tolerate a party person.

He walked into the living room space and was immediately met by someone he could only describe as similar to both of Leo's incredibly camp best friends. Light brownish hair streaked with pink, clothes that seemed somewhat ridiculous, and a grin that was somewhere between nervous and flirtatious. 

"Um, hello," Xander said again, offering a hand for his new room mate to shake. "I'm Xander."

"U-um, hi!" The man shook his hand. He was blushing, and Xander couldn't decide whether he was stupidly shy or even more gay than he'd initially judged. "I'm Laslow."

Xander realised quite quickly that he hadn't planned anything to talk about when he first met this person he was going to be living with, so, by instinct, he asked, "what are you doing for your degree?"

"Musical theatre," Laslow said with a grin, and Xander idly wondered if it would be alright to just straight up assume that this guy had a boyfriend. "How about you?"

"History," he said. It sounded almost dry next to what Laslow was doing, if he were to be honest. When he told people he was doing history, the general response had been 'well, you've always been sensible', which basically meant they thought he'd chosen something boring.

"Ha, a normal choice!" Laslow laughed, and the blush was almost gone away now. "My friends said I was being an idiot for choosing to do this, but in my opinion, there's no better way to find girls than in a dance class."

Huh. Maybe he wasn't so gay, then. "Well, I suppose you're right." Xander laughed. "Never had much interest in dancing myself, and I've never found it worth the effort to learn something new just to get a girl. But as long as you're happy doing it, I suppose that's fine."

"I'm not learning anything new," Laslow shrugged. "I've been a dancer all my life, like..." He trailed off, and he suddenly busied himself with moving his three bags towards the other bedroom. "It's nice to meet you Xander, I hope we'll get along well."

"The same to you. I'm sure we will; you seem nice enough." Considering that he had previously mentioned picking up girls, Xander hoped he wouldn't be bringing them back to his room. He could very much do without noises like that whilst he was trying to study. And there would be a lot of studying, no doubt about that. He wasn't the kind of person who would throw this chance away. Finally, he had a chance to get a good qualification that would lead to him getting a job so he could support his siblings and take them away from his father. Before all that, he needed to study, so if Laslow was going to disturb him with the girls he did romantic duets with in music theatre, then he was going to have words with him.

Honestly, Xander had never even considered that people went to university for things other than the sole purpose of getting a degree. What use was distracting oneself with a girlfriend or boyfriend when you could instead be learning? It was all a waste of time if you did't bother to put the effort in. He'd heard that lots of people liked to party in their first year at university because they thought that putting effort in that year was pointless when they could be having fun for the final time before they truly went in to the world of work. He couldn't understand that at all, it was daft and he would never agree with it. He just hoped that Laslow wasn't all like that, because he did want to get along with his new room mate.


	2. Exploring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laslow and Xander look around the university campus together and find out a little about each other.

It was about another hour before Laslow knocked on Xander's door and cheerfully asked if he'd like to go explore the campus with him. Apparently it would be a good way of getting to know each other, which Laslow seemed very keen on doing. Xander forced himself to reconsider the gay option again, but if he did that then he would have to explain to Laslow that he wasn't interested, and that might hinder their ability to be friendly with each other, so he left the thoughts alone.

"It's the first day in," Xander said warily. "Won't everyone be getting drunk? I don't want to escort drunk people on my first night at university."

"Don't worry about me, I can hold my liquor," Laslow smiled. "I don't really drink anyway, it fucks around with my coordination." Well, that was something. No drunk roommates to deal with, and Xander certainly didn't plan on getting drunk if he could possibly avoid it.

"Alright, I'll come and look around with you. We could stop off and get something to eat, too, I didn't bring very much food."

"That's great!" Laslow smiled widely, something that made Xander feel sort of satisfied. Laslow was clearly easy to please, but after so long of failing to make a difference in the sustainability in the lives of his siblings, it was nice to make someone happy.

"My pleasure," he said, and if there was a single phrase he'd ever regretted saying, it was saying that to someone as obviously gay as Laslow was. Pink hair, he reminded himself. This man has pink hair and does music theatre and probably ballet. He probably has a tight leotard in his bag, or multiple, and you just said it was your pleasure to take him out to eat somewhere.

"Oh, the pleasure is all mine, I'm sure." Laslow grinned- Xander tried to ascertain if he was merely being polite or flirting, and failed to make a judgement. Deciding it would probably be best to leave before the conversation got any weirder, he headed out of the room, Laslow following behind him.

The afternoon was warm, as it was still September, and there was still some sun remaining as they ventured out into the more picturesque and bustling areas of the university campus. There were a handful of restaurants and supermarkets on site, as well as more than a handful of bars, but Laslow assured him that he'd had his fair share of those over the summer with his friends. His only words on the matter were 'never again', and he went up in Xander's estimation.

People hurried to and fro across the campus, alone or in small groups, all too busy with their own goals to bother looking at Xander and Laslow. It was different from home, different in a good way. No one bothered you here, it seemed. They were free to talk about everything that came to Laslow's mind, which was a lot of things, mostly about where he came from (England, and his German was remarkable even though Xander had caught the funny accent), some of the plays and musicals and ballets he'd been in (apparently he was a paid dancer and qualified as a dance teacher, so maybe he wasn't quite the free spirited slacker that Xander had immediately judged him as), and all the pretty girls who had rejected him on the way here. Xander doubted that Laslow had been on a date in his life, given all his stories of rejection. He talked so much about girls that it was very hard to see him as obviously gay anymore, unless this was all some huge act and talking to so many girls was just a cover up for what he really liked. It was hard to tell. And frankly, Xander didn't know why it was bothering him just as much as it was. He really shouldn't be this concerned about his new roommate's sexuality. It just...it surprised him that Laslow wasn't open about it. Leo was quietly open about his own feelings, unless they were around father, in which case he was completely silent about it, but Laslow seemed the sort to flaunt it in all situations.

"Laslow, why is your hair half pink?" He couldn't hold in the silly questions any longer, it seemed. He just couldn't understand why someone who worked in a theatrical context could even have hair like that unless it was some kind of statement. It certainly wasn't possible to have natural pink hair.

"Because I was in a play over the summer that required me to have hair like this, and I'd rather dye it than wear a wig," he explained cheerfully. "And I quite like the pink, don't you? I think it suits me."

"So your hair is brown naturally?" He asked. That made a little more sense, but it did not explain the streaks.

"I like to call it ash," he said, tucking the impractical looking long section behind his ears. "But yes, it's a really boring colour and it's really hard to dye."

"Alright..." Xander shrugged, and then ducked away when he felt Laslow pull at a lock of his hair. "Hey!"

"Sorry. Yours is such a nice blond, though, it would be really easy to dye if you wanted to. You could even make it pink like mine if you wanted to!"

"I don't think my father would let me back into the house," he said it like it was a joke, but Camilla was only let back in with purple hair because Elise had started crying.

"Look on the bright side, at least you have one," Laslow said, and immediately a blush rose to his cheeks. "I'm so sorry, ah, that was rude."

"I often wish I didn't," Xander muttered darkly, and Laslow glanced away entirely and didn't say anything more for a while. 

He only spoke again when they passed a small cafe, and there he tugged on Xander's arm and pointed to it. "We could eat in here," he suggested. "Looks like it's probably cheap, right?"

"Sure," he said, hoping that they were paying for their meals separately. The cafe was pretty much full, with people at almost all of the tables, and the staff looked hurried and annoyed. "Not a good place to flirt, I'd say," he joked, and Laslow smiled in a way that looked forced.

They both ordered the cheapest meal on the menu, which the waitress was clearly not at all surprised to see, and they ate in a slightly less cheery manner than they had been talking. Xander cursed his lack of ability to confront the problem, but that didn't mean he was going to over share and talk about his shitty father on his first evening out with his new room mate, who had either an absent or a dead one.

"So..." Xander struggled to think of something suitable to turn the topic of conversation to. "Why'd you move here from England? Seems an odd choice to come here instead of there."

"Oh, you know, new opportunities. The further away I am, the more I meet new people and make new connections." And the less he saw of people he knew at home. Xander knew that one. At his college, and at his school before it, he had been known as the shy and anxious swot who knew everything but spoke to no one on friendly terms. It had been sort of isolating that everyone had these ideas about him that he couldn't change, and he'd moved to a university far away to get away from that. He could make himself known as someone else here- hopefully someone who was better liked. Laslow seemed to like him, at least, so that was a start.

"I sort of just wanted to get away," he said. Laslow nodded, but stayed pointedly focused on his food. "I've lived in that house for quite a while, since I moved to Germany."

"You're French?" Laslow guessed, and Xander just looked at him. How on earth did he know that? He was sure that his vaguely French sounding German accent was gone by now.

"How did you know?"

"You had a French book in your bag, that kind of made it obvious. And your accent's a bit off. In a nice way, though. I like it." Again with that half-nervous, half-flirtatious grin.

"Are you, ah, are you flirting with me?" Xander laughed nervously and quickly put a chip in his mouth so he didn't have to say anything more.

Laslow looked at him and laughed in an equally nervous way. "It may be hard to believe, but I am in fact straight. Not everyone in music theatre is gay."

"Right." Xander didn't question him any further on the matter, but his suspicions hadn't exactly been put to rest. He still felt like there was plenty more to his roommate than met the eye, but if he wasn't sharing, it would be rude to pry further. "Okay, that's fine. I just, um, I wanted to check, you know?"

"I know," Laslow said, laughing. "I'm just so dashing that everyone wants to date me."

"I'm not really here to date people," Xander said. "I'm here to get my degree, because that's what university is for."

"Really? An attractive guy like you, you could find yourself a date in about five minutes if you wanted. University is about more than just your degree, there's plenty of time to actually have fun, too."

"If you say so," Xander said, but he wouldn't be taking any dating advice from a man with pink hair who had more stories of rejection than he did about anything else.

The rest of their meal was spent in a much more comfortable conversation, and once they were done they looked around the campus a little more. Laslow located the dance studio and cooed at it for a few minutes while Xander waited outside awkwardly. 

He found the history building next, an impressively old-looking block that looked to have been built in roughly the same era that its students would be learning about when term started. Laslow didn't seem particularly interested, and he wandered off to go talk to some poor girl while Xander had a look inside. By the time he came out again, Laslow was alone and looked a bit put out.

"She said I was weird," he complained, and Xander just laughed.

"Come on, let's go back before someone throws up on us while drunk."

"It's hardly late night yet, most people don't do the throwing up until about two in the morning," Laslow said, laughing. "But you're probably right, we should get back anyway."

When they went back to the tiny set of rooms they shared, Laslow immediately excused himself to go to bed. "I've been awake since very early this morning, I got a nine o'clock plane here." Xander winced in sympathy, but that didn't make it any less suspicious when Laslow left the rooms at two in the morning, probably not realising that he'd woken Xander up.


	3. Flat Dancing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Xander wakes up, he asks Laslow about what happened the night before.

Xander didn't investigate what Laslow was doing at two in the morning, because when he woke up again at eight, all the cupboards had been filled by a bunch of food from the supermarket, and he couldn't just walk in and demand to know what had happened and then expect to be allowed to have some of the food.

Laslow was already eating breakfast on the living room sofa, looking as tired as one would expect a person who had been up at 2am to look. He smiled when Xander entered the kitchen though, a more cheery grin than he'd seen before.

"You sleep late. Or maybe I just wake early, I'm not sure. You can have some of the food I bought if you want, I don't mind."

"I'll get some food next time I go out to get stuff," Xander said. He had plenty of money, stuff he'd been saving up through the job he'd had through college and the tiny amounts he took himself from his father for the equivalent of pocket money, and he was definitely planning on getting a job while he was here.

"Thanks," Laslow said through a mouthful of cereal, and Xander shook his head slightly and resisted the urge to scold his roommate for having bad manners. He helped himself to a bowl of cereal instead, going to join Laslow on the sofa. "It sure would be nice to have space for a kitchen table, but these flats weren't designed with actual living in mind."

"I think people call it student living," Xander said, and Laslow laughed. "When do your classes start? Do you even have lectures?"

"I don't get lectures unless there are special people coming in to talk to us," he said. "But I have loads of reading, learning and practising to do. We had to learn three monologues, a song, and an assigned part of a scene before we even came, actually. The person teaching us got hold of our emails early."

"Wow. Have you learnt everything?" Laslow nodded vigorously, looking offended at the very notion that he might not have done his work properly. "All I had to do in preparation was read a couple of books." He'd read the books and taken a couple of notes and he'd looked into what the textbooks would be for the course (and then he'd cringed at the price and decided to look into it again later).

"I'll have to read through quite a few plays eventually," he said. "But I like reading, so I'll be okay." 

"I expect I'll have rather a lot more books to read, but it's alright. I like reading, too." Another thing they had in common. That was nice. Xander was still glad he'd ended up with a roommate who seemed halfway decent, despite the pink hair and the sneaking out at two in the morning. He really should ask about that, but he didn't know if Laslow would dislike him for it. After all, he was sitting on their shared sofa and eating the food that Laslow bought. "Uh, did you go anywhere last night? I swear I heard something, but it could have been anyone."

"Oh, yeah," Laslow blushed a bright red and scratched the back of his neck. "I got a text from someone I met, they were in a room full of drunk people and needed help."

"Huh. Fair enough." Better than sneaking out for some late-night fling or whatever else it was that Xander had suspected. "A friend of yours? Or a random girl who you actually convinced to swap numbers with you?"

"Both, I suppose," Laslow laughed. "She said she wasn't interested in me, but one day I'll win her over with my charm." Xander very much doubted that. If Laslow had started off with the flirting then he didn't imagine that anyone would date him.

"Good luck with that," Xander said. giving Laslow a wry smile as he finished off the last of his cereal. "Did you have any plans for today? I don't know about you, but my classes don't start for another couple of days."

"I have to go and talk to someone a little ways away about my job," he said. "I was offered a place teaching ballet to kids, but I haven't been there yet and I need to meet with her." When Laslow had said that he was qualified as a dance teacher, Xander hadn't realised that it meant he could actually teach people to dance as a job.

"Alright, then. I hope she likes you, it'll be useful to get yourself a job this early on." Xander should really look into getting himself a job, too- he had no idea what he could do, but if Laslow was going to be gone for the day, he may as well start looking.

"Yeah, I don't have all that much money, because of stuff that's happened." Laslow shrugged and stood up, taking his bowl to the sink and immediately starting to wash it. Xander was impressed, apparently he'd managed to land a tidy roommate, too. "It'd be nice to earn some so I have enough to actually do things. It's really hard to get to auditions on minimal money."

"I can imagine. What sort of things do you audition for?" He couldn't imagine that many roles called for a rather flamboyant man with bright pink streaks in his hair and a penchant for flirting badly with girls. But then again, maybe they did. He was no actor.

"Anything I can," he said. "I wouldn't be an actor if I couldn't act. And I'm no Caiaphas, but I can sing pretty well. Generally I prioritise dance based roles, because there's less competition."

Xander didn't understand the reference he'd made, but he figured it had something to do with musicals. He'd never been one for musicals, and he didn't intend to start getting into them now. If Laslow tried to make Xander practise lines with him, stern words would need to be had. "That makes sense," he said, mostly because he couldn't think of anything to say. He knew nothing about plays or musicals or anything, that was why he was doing history and not literature. His teachers at college had said he'd be good in classics, but he'd hated the side of it that was more based around literature. He hated all the stuff that linked meaningless things to a meaning of a poem or a text.

"I should probably be heading out, now." Laslow stood up, making his way behind the sofa with what looked like some skipping and half a pirouette. He patted Xander's head as he walked past, smiling. "I'll see you later!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Caiaphas, for anyone who is interested, is a character in Jesus Christ Superstar who has a very, very low singing part. He's also Jewish, and a fair bit older than Laslow is (I imagine that Laslow would play Simon, who also doubles as one of the dancers for Herod in some productions, but his dream role would probably be Jesus because Gethsemane).


	4. 'Chill'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Xander has no chill, Laslow has no chill, and they perform a romantic duet together.

In the few days before classes started, Xander managed to get himself a job, too. Nothing as nice or well-paid as Laslow's new job (that he wouldn't shut up about)- no, instead, Xander had a job working in the university library. Picking books up and sorting them out, glaring at couples trying to sneak some 'alone time' in the study areas, that sort of thing. The couples were annoying, really annoying, but getting the money that he got per hour worked was nice, and so was knowing the librarians, because he had the feeling that even with the little more income he was getting, he would still be getting a lot of his reading done from library copies of books.

When the term started properly, though, he started finding it hard to balance his job with the sheer amount of studying that he wanted to do. Laslow's unhelpful advice was just to 'chill' about everything, but Xander did not want to 'chill'. He wanted to get a degree.

Besides, Laslow had no right to tell him to 'chill'. Xander wasn't the one who got up at seven in the morning to 'go somewhere' and then he wouldn't ever come back until at least eight, later if he had no morning classes. Then he'd go to a drama practise or a singing practise or a dancing practise. He'd have at least one of those every single day, and Xander always came home to Laslow reciting lines or doing singing practise. On top of all of that, he had work almost every day and he spent a few hours every day doing dance training and at least an hour doing singing. It was ridiculous and Xander came to very much admire the man for his sheer hard work at everything. Did all arts students work like that?

It was after two weeks of classes that Xander came home to find Laslow pacing the floor, his phone in his hand. When he saw Xander, however, he stopped and grinned.

"There you are! Please, I need your help. I need someone to practise this song with." He shoved his phone in Xander's face.

"I can't sing," he said, his tone about as flat as his singing voice. "I really can't."

"You can read the words, then!" He said. "Please, I need it to audition for the uni production and Selena refuses to practise 'because of the content." He put on a slightly higher, grumpier voice for the last bit, and it was more than a little convincing.

Having taken Laslow's phone and skimmed through the lyrics, he couldn't blame Selena (who was the girl Laslow had rescued from drunk people on their first night here, as far as he could tell) for not wanting to sing with him. "Why are you asking me to practise a romantic duet with you?" 

"Because I need it for an audition, and Selena won't do it with me," he repeated, but a blush had risen to his cheeks. Xander still couldn't be sure if Laslow was gay or not, and he couldn't decide whether, if he was, that he was bad at concealing it or very good.

"Fine," Xander relented, settling onto the sofa with Laslow's phone still in his hand. Laslow had the first part of the duet, and Xander was happy to listen. His roommate certainly had a good singing voice, that much was obvious. And just looking at him, anyone could see that he was born to do this. He was so comfortable singing, even in front of him, the unwilling participator. He liked listening, but the sections where he had to speak out his lines were awful and humiliating. This was a romantic duet that involved him passionately confessing his love to Laslow. And that made him uncomfortable. What if someone filmed it?

That was stupid, he told himself. He just read out the lines, shaking his blond hair into his face to hide the redness in his cheeks. It didn't work very well- he knew that Laslow could still see him blushing.

"It's cute when you blush, your face is so pale normally," Laslow said when they were done, and Xander seriously reconsidered whether Laslow was gay or not. It was ridiculous to call someone cute when they blushed, especially if both of them claimed to be straight.

"Thank you...?" Xander had no idea how to respond to that, really, so he just handed Laslow his phone back and shifted awkwardly on the sofa. Honestly, who told people their blushes were cute?

"No no, thank you." And now Laslow was winking at him. This was not good. Xander couldn't deal with this. "You've really helped me, it's so much easier to practise and think about it if someone reads, even though you didn't sing."

"In that case, no problem?" Laslow was an absolute mystery to him, honestly. A paradox in some ways, even though he really should be blindingly obvious. He made no sense. He cut off almost every attempt Xander made at talking about his past, which in itself Xander didn't mind, but the problem was that Laslow never said which topics he would prefer to be avoided. It just seemed to be everything. Friends, family, where he went to school, even what he did for his a-levels, he just cut him off and didn't want to speak about it.

And then, of course, there was the matter of the flirting. For as clumsy and hopeless as Laslow seemed to be with girls, he had no problem smiling easily at Xander and touching him on the arm or leg and getting him to do awkward things like perform a romantic duet together. It was damned confusing. It wasn't that he didn't like helping Laslow with things that he needed, he did, because it made Laslow happy and Xander liked pleasing people, but it made him feel things that he wasn't sure that he was meant to be feeling. He'd never felt this way about a friend before, he'd never been so nervous around someone he had been fast to find a friend in.

It was quite honestly a mess, and he wasn't sure that it was a mess that he wanted to get himself out of.


End file.
